Obama Medicare Ad: “Sleepless Nights” Under President Romney

President Barack Obama’s campaign is attacking Mitt Romney on Medicare in a television ad featuring senior citizens, including one who warns of “sleepless nights” if Romney wins the Nov. 6 election.

“Mitt Romney would turn Medicare into vouchers,” a narrator says before seguing to older voters who attack plans by Romney to overhaul the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

“If Mitt Romney is the president, the seniors will have many sleepless nights,” an elderly woman says at the end of the spot.

Romney and Republican vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan reject the “voucher” label for their proposal, which they call a “premium support” system that would provide a fixed benefit to people that they can use to purchase insurance. Romney and Ryan say they wouldn’t change Medicare for anyone over age 55.

“We’ll save Medicare and Social Security, both for current and near retirees, and for the generation to come,” Romney said today at a campaign appearance in Ames, Iowa.

Republicans also have said Obama and Democrats are trying to scare senior citizens for political gain.

Obama’s ad first ran this morning in Tallahassee, Florida, according to Kantar Media’s CMAG. Florida has 29 electoral votes, more than any other so-called swing state. More than 22 percent of Florida’s voting-age population was 65 or older in 2011, the highest share in the nation, according to a Census Bureau estimate.